October Novel Prep Challenge

I know some of you are long-time participants in this challenge, and I swear every year the idea of plotting, outlining, and all of the various ways come up.

At the bottom of the Prep Calendar you'll find a few different ways to "outline." I'm going to use that term loosely because we all have different ways. The point here is to find what works. The first five-ish years, I swear I took every single extra day to plot out the story because I hadn't found the method that worked for me. I hit the major points, sure, but it didn't quite gel in my head.

Practice might not be perfect, but it has helped me so much to put my novels together. This year, I knew part of what I was doing, and I managed to do some of the plotting exercises much earlier than I have in the past. Often i need to know my protagonist, antagonist, and several other pieces before that plot comes into place.

Remember, this is a 15 minute (ish) exercise. It's all right if you don't know the whole thing, or even if you just have pieces missing. When you learn the way that really hits home for you, it'll become apparent because the writing becomes easier. That doesn't mean you can't have your pantsing moments during writing, too - because an outline is a road map. You may have the bare minimum and you fill in the rest as you go during November.

Here are a few other ideas that you might not have seen before:
https://www.ridethepen.com/how-to-outline-a-novel/
https://writersafterdark.net/2016/11/21/free-outlining-worksheets-and-editing-ch...
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/plot-write-novel-free-templates-worksheets/
https://www.creative-writing-now.com/novel-outline.html

Oh, I must be careful. That's a rabbit hole I might not come back from! Happy Plotting!